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He looks like the ace fighter pilot in a movie who retired because of some big traumatic event, but when the fate of the world is at stake he'll come back in at the last second a la Han Solo and save the day.

It's hysterical to me how in normal land, we would assume that the GWU lawyer would be representing the President. While the guy that barely graduated from the worst law school in the country and barely passed the bar after multiple attempts would be representing a porn star.

“If they reject the offer, they could be seen as effectively acknowledging the existence of a continuing effort to keep Ms. Clifford silent about an affair that Mr. Cohen and the president say did not happen.”

Her lawyer was on MSNBC last week; the interview is on YouTube. He’s competent and did a great job explaining the issues plainly. He’s a breath of fresh air after seeing so many terrible attorneys associated with Trump, most recently Sam Nunberg.

Can we all take a moment to just ponder for a moment that Ms. Daniels is doing her patriotic duty to pursue this out in the open in full compliance with the law? I'm not sure who's gonna get Trump first but I'd wager Stormy draws first blood and then Mueller can follow up with the even worse but more technical ways that Trump is compromised.

Do porn stars get any kind of residual based on the popularity of their videos, I wonder? She could be making out big based on increased traffic

Edit to add: thanks for all the answers, seems like, to make a bad pun, most porn actors/actresses are screwed out of residuals (which 'hot girls wanted' already made me think that porn is pretty much irredeemably exploitative as it's currently run, but I thought maybe outside of the ameauteur market maybe some people were getting paid fairly

WHY DID THEY EVEN PAY HER TO BEGIN WITH!? Of all the things to try and cover up, they picked a fling with someone the vast majority of males, and a number of females, in the US would love to have had a fling with. She's already said it wasn't even an affair. Just Trump doing what Trump does. This remains the stupidest scandal in all the Trump scandals, and its just getting more stupid

She probably passive aggressively threatened Trump she was going to leak it during his campaign. He and his people tried to cover it up, someone politically who is against Trump started backing Stormy. Here we are, dumbest scandal in the history of US politics.

Under Mr. Avenatti’s offer, Ms. Clifford would then be allowed to “(a) speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the President and the attempts to silence her and (b) use any publish any text messages, photos and/or videos relating to the President that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution and legal liability for damages.” good lordy there are tapes.

The real significance of this story is that it appears to strengthen one of the key allegations within the Steele Dossier - namely that while in Russia, Trump took part in sex parties organized by local "service" providers - and that he bribed/coerced peoples silence, using company structures. Steele was suggesting Trump did in Russia precisely what Trump has done with Stormy Daniels - and the dossier was written before anything about Stormy Daniels was publicly known. This pattern of behaviour indicates Trump would be highly susceptible to blackmail - as it establishes he is willing to pay a price in order to keep certain things quiet. And that is precisely what the Steele Dossier suggested - that he had been compromised by the FSB.

Steele Dossier

page 1.

Former top Russian intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised TRUMP through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him. According to several knowledgeable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sexual acts which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB.

page 27

The local business/political elite figure reported that TRUMP had paid bribes there to further his interests but very discreetly and only through affiliated companies, making it very hard to prove. The local services industry source reported that TRUMP had participated in sex parties in the city too, but that all direct witnesses to this recently had been "silenced" i.e. bribed or coerced to disappear.

A porn star's lawyer is running circles around the entire White House. Can you imagine the epic beatdown of unprecedented proportions that is going to occur when Mueller and the Justice League finally crack open that six-pack of sweet, bubbly whoop-ass?

Dude is running circles around the White House right now, he’s keeping this story front and center where all other scandals flame out within a day or two. It’s been over a week now and still has Trump throwing a tantrum while conservatives censor any news related to this story.

From his wiki: "Avenatti later joined Greene Broillet & Wheeler, a Los Angeles boutique litigation firm. While there, he handled a number of high-profile cases, including a $10 million defamation case against Paris Hilton, a successful idea-theft lawsuit relating to the show The Apprentice and against producers Mark Burnett and Donald Trump

Stormy is killing it on the legal trolling. Either she's brilliant or has a really good lawyer. First she put Trump in a crazy situation where if he denies he has this agreement with her then the agreement is nullified and she can talk about all the details of their relationship. OR he admits it was him, which could make him guilty of violating campaign finance laws.

Now, she says she will give the money back, and will put it in whatever account Trump chooses. LOL, so good. The second he chooses an account he is admitting to being part of the agreement.

Can you imagine the slime she has had to deal with throughout her whole career? I imagine her dealing with all the harassment, all the sexism, all of the superior and smug attitudes, all of the just rampant bullshit and telling herself that someday she's going to be able to issue the ultimate fuck you to one of these guys.

This is her day to issue that fuck you. I hope to god that she wins, because fuck if I'm not sick and tired of seeing the scumbags always win.

I guess I meant legally she's in a win-win-win situation. But yea, I've said in other places that I can't imagine being in her position from a notoriety standpoint. People dismiss everything she says or does because she's a porn star, like of course everything she does is for attention or money. But this isn't everyday attention or money. If this really escalates, her name is going to be in history books. That's weird as hell to think about. Not to mention that in the present she'll have to deal with death threats and defamation constantly.

It's gotta be so weird from her perspective, too. Like Monica had an idea of what kind of trouble they were getting into, but Stormy gets wined and dined by a C-list celebrity in the 2006, lets him flop around on her for a few minutes, and ten years later the guy is elected president. Is there a worse example of a hookup coming back to haunt someone so many years later that doesn't involve a love-child, like Strom Thurmond?

But why would Trump even agree to this? They paid her the money in exchange for her silence, so what motivation would they have to take the money back and free her from her agreement? Seems to me like a deal nobody would take.

Because this is exactly what Trump is denying. How can Trump enforce a contract that he claims has nothing to do with him?

If she is eventually forced to break her NDA, she can then point to all of these things saying "Look, I offered to give the money back, I offered to talk to them, but the other party in the contract continually stated that he had nothing to do with the contract.."

A good analogy would be you rent a house for a 1 year contract. You decide to leave after only 3 months. So you call the landlord and say you are willing to buy out the contract so you can leave earlier. The landlord responds with: "I have nothing to do with that lease, I never signed it"

...so you just leave.

This is Stormy holding out the money and saying "Here it is, here's you money, just grab it." And Trump is saying "That's not my money". It makes the inevitable court case after she does talk much easier for her to win.

Cohen's entity is clearly a party and signed and consideration was paid, so 9 times out of 10 that's enough for at least that entity to be able to enforce the covenants. I think really the only narrative Cohen could try here is basically something like, "I had no idea if an affair occurred, but as a close friend of the President and not in my capacity as a representative, I scrambled to have this buried including paying out of my own pocket, not because I wanted to see him elected President, but because I wanted to spare him and Melania the public exposure and shame that would come from this going public (and I knew that given his high profile, it would be all over the media)." What I find really interesting is why they aren't coming out swinging on that narrative.

Its part of another one of her lawsuits... she's claiming that because the NDA was improperly signed, its invalid. So she asked a judge to render a judgement on the contract: is it legally valid, or not? If so, she has to stay quiet. If not, then she gets to talk and keep all the "evidence." Now, you dont have to sign a contract for it to be valid, but there does have to be some kind of exchange between the parties... who both have to admit that's whats in the contract.

The trouble here is that she's constantly forcing Trump to make a choice... he'd love to say "this is a libel lawsuit, its not true, but I'm settling." But he cant. He has to actually say "I had sex with her and paid her for silence." Or he has to say "I never had sex with her, she's mistaken," but then she releases the tapes.

He has to make a choice soon over this legal strategy...

Oh and one more wrinkle: even if he admits he did it and wants the evidence, she can STILL call the NDA invalid because its hiding a crime: adultery, which is a misdemeanor in New York State. Seems like a stupid, archaic law, but there it is...

So imagine that, Trump finally says "well, admitting the truth sucks but its better than those photos getting out..." Then Stormy's lawyer says "Thanks but no thanks, we just realized Trump committed adultery which is a misdemeanor in New York State, and we cant be a party the cover up of a crime. We'll upload to youtube shortly..."

There are a LOT of savvy women in the adult entertainment industry. There are also a lot of women who are otherwise failures or out of options, forced to use their bodies to make ends meet.

My dad is an attorney who deals in estate planning, personal injury, and workers' comp. One of his clients owns a strip club in downtown Minneapolis, and his best girl for the last ~6 years earns $300-$350k take home per year, runs a successful business in supply logistics, and is working on her second doctorate degree.

Now, she says she will give the money back, and will put it in whatever account Trump chooses. LOL, so good. The second he chooses an account he is admitting to being part of the agreement.

Not only that, but if Trump and Cohen are stupid enough to come out and say "No we're not ending the NDA for returning the payment." it confirms the NDA is with him and that they paid money to keep her silent.

This. It’s nothing but a Racket that’s plain to see but we are blinding ourselves to off the cuff remarks. Without them we don’t see the relevance of Trumps actions. He’s trying to lead while being hobbled by his own actions.

Under the terms of the deal detailed in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, the contract ensuring Ms. Clifford’s silence would be “deemed null and void’’ once she returned the sum called for in her original contract.

Under Mr. Avenatti’s offer, Ms. Clifford would then be allowed to “(a) speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the President and the attempts to silence her and (b) use and publish any text messages, photos and/or videos relating to the President that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution and/or legal liability for damages.”

"I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."

Who could have ever known that the man who said all this would be involved in a sex scandal? /s

If Stormy and her lawyer Avenatti ends up bringing down this corrupt fucked-up shitshow of an administration, I will participate in nation-wide parades and support a Stormy-Avenatti Day (aka SAD) as a national holiday to remind us of these sad times.

It’s amazing that her “silence” is almost being treated like a commodity that can be bought/sold/traded. Its value has certainly increased over time; sitting on the story made its worth significantly greater.

That depends on how you define value. It's monetary value to Stormy has increased. It's value to the American public has probably decreased. Had the story came out prior to the election, perhaps it would have influenced the results...